Pilot, student OK after helicopter crash

Two men walked away from a helicopter crash that occurred near the Houma Terrebonne Airport on Monday.

Houma Police dispatched officers to a cane field at 3792 Hwy 56 around 3:42 p.m. after receiving a call in reference to the crash.

Only two men were in the cockpit at the time; Gerald Johnson of Houma was instructing Thomas Harris of Lafayette, a student who had been flying for about a year. According to Houma Police, Harris was practicing emergency landing around an altitude of 600 feet when the engine cut out.

“They were flying pretty low,” said airport manager Earl Hicks, who has often seen emergency landing procedures. He said they were lucky they weren’t flying any higher.

After the engine failed, Harris made a crash landing in a cane field where police, the Houma Fire Department and Acadian Ambulance Service found them moments later. Paramedic’s examination of the two men at the crash site revealed no substantial injuries and they were not transported to receive additional medical treatment, Houma Police spokesman Lt. Todd Duplantis said.

The helicopter, however, received substantial damage to its structure. The HFD was dispatched, but no fire was reported.

Hicks said Johnson was training Harris independently, not through an HTA training program. The crash did not occur on airport property, nearly 50 feet away. Hicks said this is the first incident that he knew of involving an aircraft near the airport and in the Houma area this year.

“Sometimes we’ll have incidents with aircraft coming in and problems with their landing gear, but the problem usually gets fixed. We haven’t had any crashes, just a few close calls,” said Hicks.